Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 108342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 542(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108342 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 542(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
One of them happened to be from Nikolai. She frowned, wondering why he hadn’t just texted her…
…But he’s detained. He couldn’t have called me. He doesn’t even have access to a phone yet. She then noticed the time stamp. Wait a minute… this was hours ago. Her heart dropped. Oh my God, this was before he was arrested…
Taking a deep breath, she tried to tamp down her worry and played the voicemail. Her stomach clenched as a wave of sorrow rolled through her. His wretched words gnawed on her emotions, and a swell of panic rampaged her mind. He sounded so sullen… so unlike himself. She gripped the steering wheel once again, looked up, and wept. The penetrating pain of her broken heart formed in her throat, burned her chest, and dripped down to her feet, paralyzing her.
She placed her phone back in her purse.
This can’t be. Not because I don’t want it to be… I mean, yes, I don’t want it to be true, but it doesn’t make sense! He can’t be in two places at one time. I saw the phone records! I saw the footage of that day Clark was last seen, and some of the other victims, too. I saw in the records that Ethan actually wore Invisalign. He doesn’t anymore, but he had them removed a few months ago. I didn’t check Nikolai’s dental records. His teeth are quite nice, but not perfect. Ethan has near perfect teeth now due to surgeries and corrective dental procedures… doesn’t mean he’s the killer, either, but that is what that sort of dental treatment does. It corrects gaps, overbites, things like that.
Nikolai? Again, nice teeth, but not perfect. It doesn’t look like he’s worn any braces. That bite was definitely from someone with that kind of dental work. Ethan is not physically strong enough to move those bodies on that beach like that. They had to be carried. I mean, he’s not a weakling, but one of the guys was over 240lbs. Get real. It would take someone with some muscle to move that sort of weight—dead weight. Someone built like Nikolai… Jesus!
She started to cry, then caught herself. Taking a few deep breaths, she pulled out her phone again.
“Hello, Porsche. Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not, but that’s not why I’m calling you. Captain White, please, listen to me.” She took a ragged inhale. “I came to the precinct, and Officer Cade, I believe her name was, wouldn’t let me see Nikolai. But I—”
“Why would you want to try and speak to Nikolai, Porsche?” His voice was edged with a mixture of disappointment and concern.
“Because something isn’t adding up! Something isn’t right. There are holes in the theory. He had—”
“Porsche! Do you hear yourself? The man had a guy tied in his fucking basement that he beat over the gotdamn head with a baseball bat! There was a box full of trophies from some of his kills! All of the items belonged to the victims! We’ve had them identified by friends and family members of the deceased.”
“Any of them from Clark Thompson? Ava would have told me…”
“No, none from Clark, but what does that matter?”
“He was the last murder. At least the last one here in Portland. The first and last murder are crucial in regard to lost or overlooked clues.”
“Remember we figured out after the autopsy of Clark Thompson that he more than likely kept him somewhere else before being drowned? The poor guy was probably in Nikolai’s basement, Porsche.”
“Do we know if that stuff in the box was planted or not? There are too many unanswered questions. This is just too easy. I can use my proximity to him to help find out the truth, but I need access to him. If you let me in that jail, I can get it out of him!”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake… He hasn’t told you the truth from the second that you two met! He’s been playing you this entire time, Porsche! You were a game to him.”
“No, that’s not true. I don’t believe that for one second.”
A long sigh ensued. “Do you know how bad this looks? Thank God no one else knows about this little twisted love affair between you two, except me!”
“You told me earlier that people saw me and him out, so which is it?!”
“I thwarted the rumors, ran damage control, and said you were just interviewing him when you two were spotted out, which you technically were, but I knew better than that… I knew there was something going on between you two. I could see it all over you when you came to my office the other day. And anyway, it doesn’t matter anymore because tonight he took care of any uncertainty!”
“What do you mean?”
“Your name was brought up by another officer. They found your business card in his jacket pocket. The officer who was placing Nikolai’s clothing and personal effects away read the card aloud. He questioned why he had your card. Nikolai ignored him. The officer then made some off-handed joke, I don’t recall what it was. Nikolai heard it all and snapped. He threatened a cop, Porsche.”